Jean-Pierre Trudeau
Early life Jean-Pierre was born a little outside Rheims, on March 18, 1971. His family owned a small vineyard, specialising in dry whites. He was the middle child of five, and yet never went through any kind of identity crisis, as he simply loathed grapes (not drinking wine by choice to this day), and was only remotely interested in events when ensconced in his maternal grandfather's study, with its globes and atlases. Young Jean knew he was to be the next Marco Polo, a modern Magellan. Unfortunately, among the numerous things not in his grandfather's copious library was an accurate family tree, as Grandpere was the Squib son, the one and only male heir, of a long line of pure-blood wizard stock. The trait went dormant in him, and his daughters, but the middle child of each daughter showed a prodigious talent, and thus Jean, two years ahead of his cousin Simone, was stepping out of the Beauxbatons coach for the first time on September 1, 1982. There were still rumours floating about of the last stragglers from Voldemort's "Mangemorts", tales of haunted dwellings and tumbledown shacks, which the young Jean took with a very large pinch of salt. What possible interest could this "fantôme anglaise" have in the French centre of magical learning? They had not, unlike Durmstrang, produced his predecessor as Dark Wizard supreme, and thus could have no cause to fear whatever malcontents he might have left in his wake. Beauxbatons offered all the adventures of which he had ever dreamed, and much besides. The change Jean was only 14 when he became, for the rest of his days, Pierre, the focused ball of perpetual damped-down fury who would seek out and destroy any who showed signs of allying themselves with the darkness. His Grandpere, Squib though he was, carried the family name, and carried on the family tradition as vintners of note, and so it was that on an August night in 1985, the "Lady of Bordeaux" and her brood descended to put an end to the goodness in the bloodline of de Meuniers. Pierre (as he would never again speak Grandpere's name, this was what he went by hereafter) was back at Beauxbatons for a week, taking part, along with Simone, in a choral recital rehearsal, designed to welcome the Minister for Magic, who would be starting off the new school year. Fourteen members of the family were massacred, and four young daughters turned on this horrific night. Pierre and Simone would never, with their own eyes, see the family home again. Simone decided she herself was a phantom, and drifted away from the rest of the students. Pierre, on the other hand, as he violently insisted on being called, threw himself into his studies with a passion rarely seen, and became the dueller that no one, no matter their year, was willing to face. Pierre would win at any cost and through any pain, and that drive carried him through a Muggle Law and International Law course at the Sorbonne, and post-doctoral studies in Heidelberg. His self-destructive edge, however, was thankfully blunted by a young man sent by the French Ministry to counsel him, Gerard Duchesne, who together with his newly-acquired bride, Amoretta, channelled the ire which fired him into a pinpoint flame for use in ways more positive. They showed him how the survivors must go on to honour the departed, and he has since made that his personal credo. The bond, though brief, was a powerful one, so much so that the couple contemplated making Pierre a godfather to their first-born, due the next May, but this concept was vetoed Chantalle Duchesne, who did not believe such a boy could ever grow up adequately to be trusted with the care of a Duchesne. In the end, the pressures of "tethering" Simone forced Pierre to move on, and away, and back to Beauxbatons. The repetition In fact, he was offered numerous, prestigious places with law firms across the continent, some of which had links to the world of magic, but most of which didn't. He turned his back on them all to do pro bono work in Rheims, fighting various local and European pieces of legislation which threatened the livelihoods of the vintners, and living off the interest from the price he got for his half of the family vineyard. Simone also worked gratis in the local hospital, having completed her own medical studies at Johns Hopkins in the US. For half a decade, the two ploughed the fruits of their labour back into the local soil. And then the "Lady" returned, looking to truly complete her earlier mission, and, by threats against the Muggle patients of the facility, brought the doctor within her grasp, and turned her. That left only Pierre. He, however, had been dreaming of this day in far more detail, and with far greater wrath than Claudette had ever known existed in the de Meuniers, and the moment Simone's eyes opened with fire, he closed them again forever with a smashed crutch driven into her heart. Two of his own sisters, Fabrice and Claire, were gone permanently before the "Lady of Bordeaux" grasped that her magic wasn't working, that, somehow, he had lured her into a dead zone created by the Muggle technologies, and so, for the first time in some two centuries, Claudette Sangral was driven like a hyena from her kill, unsatisfied. The "Lady" remembers beyond a doubt, but she also recollects that Pierre out-thought her, and has, thus far, not sought a rematch. The law Pierre preserved Simone's ashes in an airtight container, with garlic and holy water as their eternal companions, and they sit above his mantelpiece, wherever his work may take him, still, a constant reminder of his roots, heritage, and all he has lost. Pierre burns with the belief that Muggles and wizards require one another, for continued life and unstunted growth, and will argue either side of any case, if he believes the other party to be driven by a need for dominance. His aversion to wine is marked, and borders on oinophobia, but he can, on State occasions, for example, suppress his personal feelings, and manage to choke down a toast - but no more. This is something he has been working on of late, and, thanks to the moral and imbibing support of Mol, he seems to be past the worst of it. He has argued law in front of the European Court of Human Rights and the British Wizengamot, but remains more than willing to turn up in the most provincial Justice of the Peace's office, if he believes the cause of justice will be served by his presence. He also has a sometimes surprisingly circumstantial view of what constitutes justice, although his own life might lead one to expect moral rectitude and rigidity. It was during this period that his Patronus finally 'emerged' as a golden eagle. Current employment He recently accepted the post, somewhat against his own better judgment, as a French representative to the International Confederation of Wizards (ICW), as Acadia Monet invoked a mutual relationship with, and desire to advance the ideas of, Adelaide LeClerc in manoeuvring him into the role. He seems to have some Anglophobe tendencies, never using the language, despite his mastery of it, when any other viable option presents. What this will mean for his service as representative, only time will tell. He has just been informed that an Ambassadorial role has been appended to the position, and is slowly resigning himself to his increasingly bureaucratic fate. Finding himself with a certain amount of time on his hands, as he waits to fulfill his Ambassadorial obligations, Pierre has taken advantage of being in London to spend considerable hours at the Leichtenauer Academy, polishing his sabre and Mensur techniques with a blade that has been in his family for two centuries. His duelling skills are as formidable with the sword as with the wand, and once the rust was off the bloom he found a distinct lack of willing opponents. His lack of scars has been taken as meaning he has avoided dangerous adversaries only by those who have never seen him in action. His reckful abandon strikes a jarring note with the sensibilities of any student of the sword, blending an absolute intuition with regard to precise force and commitment to a psychological intensity which leaves the adversary without solid ground upon which to find footing. He has crossed swords, with discernibly less success, with the daughter of his old friends, Xylianne Molyneaux. He is beginning to chafe at being stuck in London whilst Claudette Sangral is on the loose on the continent once more. His brief foray into teaching at Hogwarts intrigued him, and he is contemplating repetition, of sorts, in the absence of more compelling options. The disappearance of Mol, however, has left him with an unscratchable itch. ICW The first ICW meeting has left Pierre with an unfocused dissatisfaction, so far. He's not sure that it's not just playing into the Confederacy's hands, to keep seeking a peaceful solution. He really wonders how recent setbacks will affect the French position. He has encountered, and does not remotely care for, Lowell Ormond. He wonders how much he is likely to see of Acadia Monet in the course of his commitments. He fears he may find himself still there when the true action and need is - everywhere else. With rumours circulating of a new menace arising in North Africa, Pierre is once more chomping at the bit. He finds Luc D'Espirit LeClerc rather more than he can handle, however, and longs for clearer guidance from Paris. Appearance Pierre's face shows relatively little of his suffering, and certainly not many of his years. He has dark brown hair and equally chocolate eyes. He dresses in a modish, but never cutting edge manner, and normally must remind himself to smile. He usually incorporates at least one truly eye-catching element into his ensemble, for the whimsy of it. In his rare moments of relaxation, he may be found in his place. Wand Alder and Lethifold Tooth, 33 cm (in fact 27 cm, as the last 6 cm constitute a sharpened tip of Cercis siliquastrum (Judas Tree) covered by a cap of alder again). The Talisman Ring of the de Meuniers marks the hilt. This was made by Pierre himself, from the branch of a tree that stood at the edge of the family property. He harvested it on his 18th birthday, when he attempted to go home, but could not bring himself to tread beyond the border of the property, using a silver sickle and by the light of a full moon. The tree contained Bowtruckles, but Pierre had acquired a smattering of "forest tongue", a sort of lingua franca of the woodland creatures of the region, from a centaur who taught at Beauxbatons, and persuaded the Bowtruckles to allow the "surgery", as the wand would be used against those who had destroyed their habitat, i.e. Claudette Sangral and her brood. The gilt-edged face of the ring has an opal at its heart, surrounded by a ruby, a diamond and a sapphire (clockwise, in thirds, from top), each pear cut. Where he wants to live The credo which he inherited from Simone, and by which he strives, with intermittent success, to conduct his life. This is also the root (he acknowledges internally) of his distaste for English - the language was Simone's "amour fou" and dredges up far too many piercing memories. Pierre's feelings about the vampires. Category:Harry Potter